Brentai wrote:I always wanted to do an open-world/RPG type game where most of your objectives are time sensitive and you can't possibly do everything, this making the story's outcome dependant on how you prioritize. Reactions like this are why I'm convinced that that's a terrible idea.

Star Control 2 is pretty close to this.

You can do it all with a guide but it's damn tight. Without a guide you will 100% blow some shit by missing the window. I mean, there are whole civilizations that can get wiped out before you even realize they exist.

Thad wrote:I think it's fine if you make it clear and overt that that's a core part of the gameplay. (Dead Rising is a good example.)

As opposed to just putting a bunch of quests in that don't really have a good reason for being time-sensitive except just to pineapple with you.

I get what you're saying but only in video games would you see a bounty board available to an entire organization full of competent, focused fighters way more experienced than you and assume somebody else WON'T beat you to it if you don't pay attention.

Brentai wrote:I always wanted to do an open-world/RPG type game where most of your objectives are time sensitive and you can't possibly do everything, this making the story's outcome dependant on how you prioritize. Reactions like this are why I'm convinced that that's a terrible idea.

People would just determine an optimal path for seeing the best endings or w/e and players would just be slave to a slightly different meta game, though no more free.

Your best bet would be some degree of randomization of which content is available on a given playthrough... But, by that point, you're making yourself responsible for putting out more content, driving up budget and/or compromising quality.

You get an accessory you can port to Second Chapter that raises item drop rates, but you can get that accessory at about the halfway mark of SC anyway (long before anything "worth" farming drops) and they don't stack.

Thad wrote:I think it's fine if you make it clear and overt that that's a core part of the gameplay. (Dead Rising is a good example.)

As opposed to just putting a bunch of quests in that don't really have a good reason for being time-sensitive except just to fuck with you.

Except for all the 100% runs of the Dead Risings.

Fair. It's not actually impossible.

But (1) it's pretty much a certainty that when you start the game the first time you're going to see a shitload of "So-and-so just died" notifications and accept that as part of the gameplay experience and (2) the game is designed around a limited timeframe that encourages replays.

So even though yes it's technically possible to 100%, it does a pretty good job of establishing upfront that you're probably not going to do that and shouldn't worry too much about it.

So I've kind of been tearing through the game. 35 hours so far, and I just started "The Final Chapter".

You can really tell that this game is only part one of a planned out trilogy. The game really pushes the mysterious origins of Joshua and how mysterious he is, and I can pretty much already tell that the only answers we're going to get about him will be some sequel hooks at the very end.

You know, if they animated the cat jumping up, I would be okay with that. Or animated a guy walking through the door and the cat following him before he closed it. Or just had the door open, and then when you walk in there's a guy standing next to it who says a cat followed him in.

But that's not what happens. The cat just walks up to the door and then fades, and then is inside the building. Because I guess we're ignoring that "when you walk up to a door you fade and the background fades and then you appear somewhere else" is supposed to be a narrative abstraction and not a literal depiction of how doors operate in the game world.

I kinda wanna see a game that just says "fuck it" and treats all those abstractions like they're literally true. Like when you walk into a door you're teleported to some other space, which is usually shaped roughly like the building but is larger on the inside. And when you exit a town you become a giant who is as large as the town you just exited. And when you get into a fight your limbs shoot out, like that guy in He-Man whose power was that his arms and legs could extend, so that you turn from a squat little chibi-man into a guy with a tiny head and long arms and legs.

And literacy is an automatic biological function that happens as you age instead of something you need to be taught, and when three people have to go somewhere together they all just merge into one body so they can all share one diving mask.